Introducing Skraggl.io!
Skraggl.io is an online multiplayer word game inspired by the Scrabble board game (duh). The name actually comes from another popular web game, skribbl.io. Unlike most turn-based games, Skraggl.io maximizes immersion by having a 3D board with physics like Tabletop Simulator and is completely real time, so you can see your friends' cursors and items just like in real life. It can support up to 8 players and has Urban Dictionary enabled by default, so go wild!
📘 Backstory
I actually don't really like board games. Especially Scrabble. It's slow, boring, and I don't have a particularly large vocabulary to play off of, despite speaking English all my life. However, this changed back in 2023 when I was on a trip with my family across the Mediterranean, and my brothers and I were bored out of our minds one day.
We were on rather small cruise ship with not much to do, until we stumbled across a quiet game room with a bunch of old people inside. I don't know why, but we decided to play Scrabble—lemme just say, the room wasn't all that quiet during our play session.
In case you're wondering, that "word" at the bottom is supposed to say "master of trees", but one of my brothers kept trying to gaslight everyone that it's a real word (as with most other nonsensical words on that board). Nonetheless, I didn't think it could be possible, but Scrabble—with some modified rules—can actually be fun! I remember dying of laughter when we tried spelling out words from ancient inside jokes and making stupid references from our childhood. Thinking back on that game, those old people minding their own business probably thought we were high as f*ck playing Scrabble.
Being a web and game developer, ever since that game I've always wondered how awesome it would be to have a web app that anyone could access on any device (since I hate downloading apps nowadays) to play a version of Scrabble where rules can either be strictly followed or devolve into complete chaos. And after checking out similar copycat Scrabble games, I was mostly disappointed on the lackluster graphics, multiplayer gameplay, and overall being too strict on the official rules. The idea has been in the back of my head for the longest time, but eventually in late 2024 I had the motivation to begin working on Skraggl.io, which would eventually become the largest and most complex codebase I've ever worked on. You can read more about the technical challenges on my first blog post.